Gas Limit is the maximum cost a user is willing to pay to successfully make a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain.

Gas is the compensation that users pay ETH miners for the computational effort spent in verifying transactions. The cost of transactions is a product of the gas price, measured in a unit called Gwei, and the gas limit. Setting a gas limit protects users from high and unexpected gas costs.

Generally, your wallet/service provider will set the limits automatically. However, you can also adjust them as you see fit. Standard transfers will limit you to 21K gas units. Let’s imagine Ethereum is a car — gas limits would denote the maximum amount of fuel you’ll need to cover a given distance.

You can determine gas prices from the ETH gas station.

Which Factors Affect Gas Limits?

Two factors affect Ethereum gas limits. First is the nature of the users’ transactions—these range from the standard ones to the most complex. As indicated earlier, the platform caps Gas at 21K units for regular transactions. On the other hand, you’ll need more computational power to execute complex ones.

Miners also have a say in these limits. They can use their collective power to either increase or decrease the block gas limit. Block gas limit is the total amount of Gas it takes block producers to process and validate transactions. Increased block limits mean that users can demand more Gas per block and vice versa.

Setting a gas limit that’s too low will result in a failed transaction.